In general, a refrigerator is divided into a refrigeration compartment that stores foods while keeping them fresh, and a freezer compartment that store foods in a frozen state. According to the location of its freezer compartment, a refrigerator can be classified as a side-by-side, top mount, or bottom freezer type refrigerator.
Recently, there has been an increase in demand for the bottom freezer type refrigerator that has its freezer compartment located at the bottom and its refrigeration compartment located at the upper portion.
A bottom freezer-type refrigerator is provided with double-sided doors for the refrigeration compartment, and a freezer compartment configured as a drawer to be inserted and extruded in forward and rearward directions. The freezer compartment includes a freezer drawer that holds frozen food products, and a separate storage box above the freezer drawer. The storage box and the drawer are both provided with rails allowing them to be slid in and out in forward and rearward directions.
The freezer drawer or the storage box may be provided with an anti-wobble mechanism at a rear thereof that prevents lateral wobbling of the freezer drawer or the storage box when they are slid in and out.
Specifically, the anti-wobble mechanism includes a shaft having a length corresponding to the width of the storage box or freezer drawer, and a rack coupled at each end of the shaft. A rail member that guides the sliding in and out of the freezer drawer or storage box is provided respectively at each sidewall of the freezer compartment. A pinion is formed extending horizontally inward from the side of a rail member. The pinion extends from the front to the rear of the freezer compartment. The rack is mounted on the pinion to prevent lateral wobbling of the freezer drawer or the storage box during their insertion and extrusion.
In the case of the above-described bottom type refrigerator according to the related art, the freezer compartment door and storage compartment are provided as drawer-type doors, so that when they are slid in or out forward or rearward, there is a limitation in installing a light emitting device that displays operating mode information at the front of the freezer door.
For example, an ultra-cold compartment may be provided in the freezer compartment, for keeping foods fresh by freezing them at extremely low temperatures. Because such ultra-cold compartments are sporadically used by most users, in order to save power, the need arises for being able to check from the outside whether an ultra-cold compartment is operating. In this case, the operation of the ultra-cold compartment may be checked through an indicator light on the front of the freezer compartment door. That is, if the ultra-cold compartment is operating, a light emitting device installed at the front of the freezer door may be turned on to indicate said operation. If a light emitting diode (LED) or other light emitting device is installed on the freezer compartment door, a cable connecting the power supply of the refrigerator to the light emitting device must be extended to the freezer door. In this case, the cable may be tangle or damaged when the freezer door is opened and closed. Moreover, a mechanism for extending or contracting the cable according to whether the freezer door is opened or closed is required, which is difficult to incorporate with the internal configuration of the freezer compartment.
To obviate the above limitations, the present disclosure provides a refrigerator that allows a user to discern through the front of the freezer door whether certain functions are operating within the freezer compartment.
In other words, a light emitting device that indicates whether certain functions are being performed is mounted within the freezer compartment, enabling a user to determine from the front surface of the freezer door whether the functions are in operation.